• Updated 2023-07-12: Hello, Guest! Welcome back, and be sure to check out this follow-up post about our outage a week or so ago.

Massive PC/XT/AT & Apple II haul

luckybob

Well-known member
You might have seen the vogons post, or reddit post in /r/retrobattlestations or on retromachines on facebook, but just incase,I'm posting here. 2 days ago now I got a massive load of computers and spare parts and I wanted to share what I got.

I've been dicking around all day and finally have some pictures!  This is only about 1/3 of the haul, the initial pictures I took are here: https://imgur.com/a/tvLHL
 
Album #1 (Apple II) >>> https://imgur.com/a/81wCm
 
There is also a box of boring mice and keyboard cables. 
 
I'm going to get started on the IBM stuff later tonight and tomorrow. TL;DR at bottom.
 
The person I got this all from I will call John. Not their real name, but it makes telling a story better. Last month, there was a Craigslist listing advertising a massive amount of IBM parts for like $2100 with promises you could "double your money". His pictures were less than flattering as the first pic was a color cga monitor with its plastic bashed to all hell. I didn't have that kind of money, so I forgot about it. 3 weeks pass, the add is still there. Long email chain later, we come to an agreement. He already sold a couple of the cpu units and needed to get rid of the rest to make room in his house. To my amazement he was willing to let me have everything on the promise that I pay him a percentage of everything I get for it. INORITE? The surprises don't end there, because when I get to his home, he tells me about another equal pile of Apple II stuff I can have for the same deal. SHIT YEA! He even had 2 helpers there and we had my pickup truck And John's car loaded in like 10 minutes. John then followed me to my house, and helped me unload everything into my garage. Seriously! Who does this? I felt like kissing the guy, but it would REALLY have been awkward for him. 
 
I would REALLY appreciate some pointers and tips when it comes to testing all this. I mean maybe not the floppy cards, if I sell a bad one, I'll just ship another. I'm thinking of getting some power resistors so I can test the power supplies under load. Tested units would probably sell better.
 
Speaking of selling. I will be offloading 95% of everything I got. It was part of the deal I made to get these parts. Thankfully I'm paying John a percentage, so I have no obligation to jack up prices. That said, NOTHING IS FOR SALE. yet. I don't want to give ebay 10% so once I am ready I will take offers (to be decided). What is left will go to ebay. I'm thinking of keeping a few choice pieces for myself and paying an appropriate percentage of market value to John. I do want to "pimp out" an Apple II for myself. ^.^ This can all change, nothing is really set in stone yet. I just want to get a proper inventory before I move forward. 
 
Tonight/tomorrow (oh lord it's 2:30am now) I have about 5 boxes of cards, 3 boxes of power supplies to get through. These look mostly to be IBM PC/XT/AT era stuff.
 
TL;DR - Got a truck load of PC/XT/AT & Apple II stuff on consignment. John (fake name) is a real stand up guy, go look at the pictures. Also nothing is for sale, yet. More to come.
 
There are only a few mysterious cards.  No idea what that solitary blue one is.  there is some handmade-looking firmware card.  Past that I was able to I.D. everything.
 

CC_333

Well-known member
I know, nothing's for sale, yet, but did you get any IBM 5150's in that lot?

This is a fantastically incredible find, by the way!

c

 

luckybob

Well-known member
I am going to give a tentative answer of yes.  I didn't get a good look at everything, it was a whirlwind of boxes and loading.  They are currently sitting in my garage at the moment.  Once I get all these addon cards organized I can go into the IBM machines.  'john' told me one of the systems was actually a 5161 if you can believe that.  This is something I will confirm/deny here in the next day or so.

 

jack

Well-known member
I was eyeing that CL post for a long time... never jumped on it because the prices were a lot of $$$. If you don't mind me asking, what sort of a deal did you get?

 

luckybob

Well-known member
Short answer, I'm selling it on consignment.  Well most of it.  I can't justify keeping 8 machines.  2 maybe 3?  yes.  I'm currently 1/2 way through all the pc cards.  Notable cards: 8-bit scsi, 8-bit quad floppy (1.44mb!), At least THIRTY 8-bit HP ethernet cards, a PCI multi I/O card with floppy support, intel above board, I could go on.

So John will get a percentage.  For the moment, my plan is to put a box of stuff on ebay with international shipping and a low starting bid and just let things ride.  Things I will keep for myself, I will pretend I sold, And pay John appropriately market price.

hopefully I end up breaking even.  }:)    

 

CC_333

Well-known member
Well, if you do come across a 5160 or 5161, please keep me in mind :)

Particularly if it includes the matching monitor!

c

 

ScutBoy

Well-known member
I replied on reddit as well, but I could use one or two of the Apple Super Serial cards with dongles. Also an 8bit ISA VGA card, though I didn't pore through your pictures in detail enough to see if one was there.

 

jack

Well-known member
I presume that one of those would happen to be video card compatible with the 5150? Looking for one...

 

luckybob

Well-known member
Well, I got to the IBM chassis.  I had a serious case of blueballs.  the bottom left machine was the cause.  It taunted me with a front decal "expansion unit".  But alas, some jackass just took the outer case, and dropped it on a bog standard 5160.

gallery #3> https://imgur.com/gallery/zDHVR

 
Top